Official News

There was a battle of wills between two engineers at the Amenia Planning Board meeting last Thursday. They happened both to be women. One represented the Silo Ridge developers, and the other represented the Amenia Planning Board. They disagreed about the cost of remediating the Silo Ridge golf course if it has to be remediated in the future. The town’s engineer said it would take $3,900 per acre, and the developer’s engineer said it should cost $400 per acre.

Twelve feet of soil have been removed from a section of the course to create a straighter driving range for golfers in the treasured Amenia viewshed. There is now a terrifying 30-foot drop from a point on Delavergne Hill, and that just happens to be the point on Route 44 affording the best view over the Harlem Valley looking south.

Julian Schreibman, Democratic candidate for the Congressional seat now held by Chris Gibson, is making an issue of Gibson’s voting record. In a widely broadcast email, Schreibman says Gibson voted with the Republican majority against measures that would have increased funds for Pell grants, voted for $61 billion in “draconian cuts” that would “slash the maximum Pell grant that a student can receive by $845 (15.2%), and voted for the Ryan budget which would have cut $26 billion from the Pell grant program making 1.7 million student ineligible for the program.

Editor’s note: The following list of goals with discussion is the work product of the Town of Washington’s Comprehensive Plan Committee furnished at our request and printed here as a public service. When the committee started on the review of the 1987 plan, there was an announcement that the draft plan would be on the town website so the public could see its progress. As that has not happened, we will attempt to report in these pages and on our website, www.themillbrookindependent.com, the work of the committee as it progresses.

The next meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Committee is scheduled for February